Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix Movie SPOILERS SPOILERS- Page 3

[ComaBaby01]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 5:26pm

Few things.

First of all, Lindsay, you're not alone. I loved it. It wasn't until a couple hours later I realized just how much they left out, but it didn't really take away from the fact that I loved it.

Umbridge and Luna, and even Bellatrix, were basically dead on. I do agree that Bellatrix was more of a caricature than a real person, but she scared me, in a good way. Neville is looking a bit old. Aren't they supposed to be 15? Haha.

Voldemort actually scared me this time as well. I wasn't happy with his portrayal at the end of the 4th. It was weak. Granted, I was taken aback at the lack of nose, and it wasn't at all as I had imagined him looking, but I was supremely content with the horror that is Voldy this time around.

I also agree about Emma's acting. She was never the Hermione I pictured when I read the books, and I hated reading the 6th one and only seeing her as I read, now that she's instilled in our minds as Hermione. I've always hated her amateurish, over the top acting. That being said, I LOVED her in this movie. And that's saying a lot.

Um... where was Kreacher? Yes, I know he was there for a couple split seconds, but where was he?? Where was the mother's portrait? I got from this movie that he was a disgruntled house elf. Nothing more. Definitely not a ***SPOILER*** future betrayer. Also, where was Firenze? While we're on this pattern, I remember Grawp being a bigger character in the book...

I do look back and see that it was a little fast-paced.. I expected a lot more in the beginning, and a lot more in the end (post-ministry of magic battle, which was great IMO), but overall I thought it was great.

My one concern with the series as a whole is the chore of tying up all these loose ends in the 7th film. They're leaving out so much, and I trust JK and her judgement that I guess she has at the end of the day, but I just don't know... I'm worried it's gonna be a big mess in the end.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 6:43pm

I don't have a whole lot to add at the moment.
I saw the movie last night and really enjoyed it.
I despise the Chris Columbus films, and feel quite strongly that the movies are their own and try not to do any of the "this was in the book" stuff. I prefer the books, because the stories lend themselves to that medium, but this movie was quite good on its own, and I feel captures the spirit of whimsy and darkness that is the Rowling world.

The acting was quite superior in this film. Daniel, Emma and Rupert are all much better year by year. I also really liked Luna. I would have loved to see the adults do more but I was very happy to be able to see what we did. Staunton Smith and Rickman in particular were spot on as usual. Gambon was less horrible than in Goblet.

I liked the pacing and editing very much, I really didn't like that aspect of Goblet. All of the cuts through the paper and emphasis on the coverup and Harry's dementia were handled quite well.

My big issue was with the battle, I don't think the editing allowed the stakes to be as high as they should have been. It would have been nice to see the death eaters actually show how they are fearful.

[Lindsay Hameister]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 6:44pm

o ya! i wish grawp (sp?) (gwap?) had said just once "hermy" lol that would have been great!

[ActualReality2]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 8:25pm

"I want to hear McGonnigal declare that she will do everything in her power to ensure that Harry becomes an auror."

I know, I love that part!
I also wanted to hear her offer Umbridge a cough drop for her stupid little throat clearing! Wahh

[Sondheim Geek]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 8:54pm

Just to insert something - the Veil bit was never explained in the movie, so I guess they tried to make it symbolism instead of actually making it part of anything.

I missed the bit when they were running around the Ministry fighting off Death Eaters here and there.. also the fact that they were ever loosing was entirely gotten rid of. It baffles me that they don't do anything with this material that you can pull out of the book so easily... everything about Rowling's writing is extremely cinematic… the entire fight scene at the end is an action-adventure movie in itself, why on earth do they not use it?

This makes no sense, but I’m still extremely tired.

[GuitarGirl]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 8:58pm

Reading all of these reviews, I feel happy that I've read the book. Otherwise I would end up very confused.

[Behind_the_Spotlight]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 9:17pm

Bearing in mind that I only saw the fourth movie once, in Imax, which gave me a headache, I thought this was the best movie so far.

Really amazing book moments were left out. But I purposely did not read the book right before seeing the movie so I could simply watch it as a movie, and I was totally into it the entire time. I left the theater completely satisfied and calling everyone I knew would listen to rave about it.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 10:45pm

Maybe they wanted to do their own thing. I still think JK Rowling did a better job of making you really fear for the kid's lives, since by the end of the fight you really thought someone wasn't going to come out okay (and someone didn't).

I wish they had shown Hermione getting knocked out because the movies never show us that Hermione is extremely vulnerable. That really bothers me. Also, I wanted it to come down to Harry and Neville, like in the book, because I'm obsessed with Neville. Still, there's this awesome shot when Harry finds the prophecy. First they show the rest of the group, then they show Harry staring at the prophecy. He pulls it off of the shelf revealing Neville in the background, who then comes into focus. That gave me chills. There was SO much Neville love in this movie.

I think they approximated it pretty well. It's still a scary scene! The Death Eaters were WAY scarier than they are in the books (in the books they come across as sort of ineffectual). Flyin' around all cool like that.

[caitiesus1522]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 10:52pm

Something else, I REALLY wanted to see the Quibbler in the movie since that is why everyone started believing Harry and showed Luna more.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 10:58pm

I was pretty disappointed. I think it mostly had to do with the total lack of narrative structure. I couldn't get past the feeling that it was just a bunch of scenes thrown together. As I watched it, nothing seemed to be affecting each other. Things just...happened. As a huge Harry Potter fan, I know that these things DID affect each other, I'm just saying that I got no sense of that from the film. Things just felt..off, and a bit weird. I'll have to see it again to try and be a bit more specific.

I'm surprised to see so much hatred of the third one, which was by FAR my favorite, although the fourth was also excellent.

POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR THE SEVENTH BOOK:



ComaBaby, I believe Kreacher's role was so small in this film because they wanted to just cut him entirely, but JKR said that would make the seventh film very difficult for them.

END SPOILERS


I do agree that Ron is much more Ron-like in this film. He's got some great tension with Hermione going on already. I'm glad they stopped the pattern of playing his character for laughs.

Staunton and Rickman really stood out for me, acting-wise. Impeccably played.

[kelzama]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 11:06pm

Spoilers...


I thought the battle at in the Dept of Mysteries was very well done, albeit only loosely based on the book. Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy was fantastic; calm, controlled rage with Belletrix insanely raging at his side. Too brief. And he's supposed to be stashed in Azkaban for HBP; I hope we get to see him again.

RE: Next movie's plot holes: How will they deal with Harry's inability to get into the Room of Requirement when Draco's in there repairing the Vanishing Cabinet, now that Umbridge has shown it can be magically blasted into? Such a significant plot point, it'll be interesting to see how they deal with it.

[Atrias]

Posted: 7/11/07 at 11:12pm

Unfortunately, since the decision was made not to use Rita Skeeter very early on, the Quibbler interview would have been sort of out of the blue.

OK, actual review:

My friend turned to me as the lights came up and said, "As a movie, this was a fantastic piece of film. As Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it was crap." This is a sentiment I almost agree with. One of the things that I love about OotP(which is something I know a lot of people have trouble with) is how much time Rowling takes to develop every single part of the plot and the characters in it. When I heard that this was going to be the shortest movie of the bunch, I was pretty apprehensive. This made some of the cuts painful for me. Fortunately, I think I've developed enough as a fan to be able to appreciate the movies in their own right, not just as extensions of the books.

I saw this at a midnight (well, 11:59) screening and was expecting to be nodding off at some point. To my surprise, not only was I awake for the whole thing, but I was riveted to the screen. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard or been so shocked or angry at a Potter movie (a theater full of fellow fans added to the fun of this, of course). I loved the touches in the movie that brought it into the real world, such as the radio playing in the common room, which brought home the fact that they're not just wizards and witches, but also normal teenagers. Umbridge, of course, was just fantastic. *spoilerspoiler* When she slapped Harry, pretty much the entire theater roared "Bitch!"
Luna was eerily perfect, though I get a weird sense that she may not be playing too far away from herself. HBC as Bellatrix was interesting;I haven't quite decided whether I liked her or not.

I, unfortunately, have never been much of a fan of Emma Thompson's interpretation of Trelawney, so it was much harder for me to feel sympathy when she was being thrown out of Hogwarts. I'm also getting a little bit tired of Snape's little snippy routine, I actually think that Rickman needs to branch him out more. The inspirational little speeches also need to stop. "What's most important is believing in yourself." Really? Did we need that?

What I'm basically trying to say: True to the book? Not exactly. Great movie? Definitely.

...except for the fact that Hermione was blonde.

[ElphieDefiesGravity]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 12:43am

I was just at a showing, but the movie stopped working right after Harry fainted after Fred and George's display. It never got fixed. There was sound, but no picture. Needless to say, we were VERY unhappy.

I was greatly enjoying the movie before that event, however.

[ComaBaby01]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 12:51am

"...except for the fact that Hermione was blonde."

I thought I was the only one who was bothered by that! Haha, it was a bit distracting at times, but, heck, it beats that do (or "don't") in Sorcerer's Stone

[DefyingEDCT]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 2:25am

where the hell did cho chang go.

[Roninjoey]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 2:35am

Hermione was blonde?

I thought they disposed of Cho Chang as efficiently as Rowling did--actually, I liked the twist in the movie better. It made the break up a little more painful. In the book they just sort of fell apart, and after all that buildup it was disappointing.

I was confused about Umbridge breaking into the room of requirement as well, but it was more dramatic than just having her appear with the signed paper.

[Lindsay Hameister]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 6:58am

emmas natural hair color is blond....wow im much to big a fan ......*hangs head in shame*

[trinaaron]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 10:08am

I left the theater after seeing this yesterday not really sure how I felt about it. Since then I haven't stopped thinking about it and am dying to see it again, in IMAX this time. I think they made the right choice in making the movie so very dark. I kind of missed the funnier moments of previous ones, but can appreciate the reasoning behind it. Voldemorts return cast a shadow over everything, and people are aware of it even as they won't admit it because of fear. I would be very interested to see what was cut from the movie. I remember hearing that Warner Bros. demanded 20 minutes be cut to shorten the running time because they were afraid that people were tired of long movies. I think that may have been a mistake. There were a few scenes that seemed rather crudely edited.

Until seeing the fight in the Ministry, it never really registered how truly horrifying some aspects of this story are.
The idea af a group of adults, some of them parents themselves, attempting to kill a bunch of children is not something that can be found in most books sold in the children's department. The world of Harry Potter, with all its silly words and outrageous ideas is at its heart a very scary place.

[GuitarGirl]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 11:28am

If the last scenes of this movie were horrifying, then imagine the scene from Half Blood Prince where Harry and Dumbledore are in the cave trying to get the necklace horcrux on screen.

[Mamie]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 11:44am

If the Warners/20 min cut story is true then we may see a 'director's cut' version released on DVD. This may settle some of the criticism some folks have with the film.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 12:36pm

I saw it last night too. The begining of the movie got me so excited. I loved what Yates did with the filming of the begining. It was very "indie" feeling for such a big budget film. He had some really beautiful pictures every now and then, but I felt like the story just was confusing. I read the book before I went to see the movie and of course they left out a couple subplots (Harry getting kicked off the team, Ron making it), but that's to be expected for such a lengthy book. But I don't feel like they explained certain things like Harry having visions, or what exactly the Order is for. And the part that still confuses me from the book too is how Voldermort got Harry to see Sirius at the Ministry even though he wasn't really there?

And Umbridge was kick a$$. I hated her in the book, but it was more of a hate-to-love sort of thing. And the actress playing her was dead on in the movie. And Luna just got on my nerves. Her voice was so airy and high pitched - which I know is the character - but everytime she talked I just didn't want to listen.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 12:51pm

I still have to finish reading the book (I purchased it when it first came out). For some reason I had no problem getting through the first few, but then this one came along and it hasn't been able to hold my attention. I think I missed the last movie installment, too.

[raphael06]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 2:13pm

Hermione's acting IMO was AWFUL! She does two expressions, both being various eyebrow movments, and once a movie she smiles. I love Rupert as Ron! He is exactly what I pictured and is so lovable.

[singingwendy]

Posted: 7/12/07 at 10:38pm

I have to say, I think I enjoyed this Harry Potter film the most since Sorcerer's Stone. Even if things were left out, for the most part, i didnt' miss them. I thought as a film, it worked really well. Of course it's not the book. One can only dream that someday someone will create a month long miniseries of the Harry Potter books.

I loved the scene between Umbridge and McGonagall on the steps. Stepping up and stepping down....brilliant! I also loved the little set up we're getting for the next movie by seeing Ginny's reactions to Harry and Cho, and the constant reinforcement that Ginny is one hell of a witch!

That said, I did miss the rest of the prophecy...especially the part where Harry learns that the whole thing could have been about Neville. I also missed Dumbledore not injuring his hand during his battle with Voldemort. And I know it's not going to change...but would someone please get Voldemort a nose???? I could buy his look when he was still in his weak nearly-human state, but now that he's complete, can he have a nose please? I personally think he'd be scarier as a "real person".

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 7/13/07 at 12:07am

I wish they didn't leave out Ginny being such a "pimp" and a B.A. In the book she says "Oh, damn." And it cracked me up because she's the youngest, and she's dating all these guys. Oh well.

Dottie - I know what you mean. It sort of took me awhile to get into the book because at the begining Harry is a little whiny and throughout the book he has these various outbursts of like "What about me?!" sentiments, but it makes sense in the head since *spoiler* he and Voldermort are sorta sharing the same "mind."